A variety of room deodorizers capable of releasing a deodorant into the space around the deodorizing device have been commercialized in recent years. Some of these devices include deodorant or fragrance holders which are replaceable in a housing shell to which room air is afforded access through openings or the like and through which the fragrance of the deodorant can be released into the ambient air.
Such devices may be affixed adhesively or chemically to surfaces e.g. in a kitchen or sanitary facility to remove or mask cooking and other household odors, can be stood upon a surface of an article of furniture or the like in a living room, bedroom or dining room to remove or mask other household odors or placed at critical locations such as pet dwelling areas to remove specific odors.
In all cases, the devices are intended to make the environment more satisfying by eliminating unpleasant aromas or superimposing more pleasant odors thereon.
For the most part, conventional room deodorizers have hitherto utilized specially formed multipart perforated synthetic housing resins in which the fragrance carrier was disposed, the latter being a bibulous synthetic resin foam layer or a paper or other plastic material which can be treated with, immersed in or saturated with the fragrance in a liquid form.
The fragrance carrier is generally provided in a mat-like configuration and usually requires special holders or the like. The production of fragrance impregnated synthetic resin mats, the need for holders which frequently must be complex and the complex constructions of earlier room deodorizers has made the cost thereof prohibitive in many cases, has created problems in handling and assembling the devices and has resulted in a general failure to use the prior art units as frequently as they might have been used. In some cases, the deodorizer was not sufficiently decorative to allow it to be exposed to view and in other cases it could not readily be used or did not permit replacement of the fragrance carrier.